Local

Lawmakers lament state budget cuts

By AL DOZIER, LTN Staff Writer

Feb. 27, 2002 - Lawmakers attending a legislative breakfast in Lincolnton Tuesday moaned and groaned over the state budget shortfall and warned next year will be even worse.

During the well-attended breakfast at the Lincoln Cultural Center, House and Senate members representing Lincoln County sympathized with local governments. The city and county stand to lose around $1 million in local revenues withheld by Gov. Mike Easley, who is seeking to make up a statewide shortfall of more than $1 billion.

Rep. Joe Kiser, R-Vale accused the General Assembly of “balancing the budget on the back of local governments.”

He charged that the state’s entire budgeting system is flawed because it keeps adding programs to a “continuation budget.”

“We need to go to zero-based budgeting,” Kiser said. That would require state agencies to justify their spending requests each year.

Lincoln County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jerry Cochrane asked lawmakers to consider more local revenue options in the face of mounting expenses resulting from a growing school population.

Lincoln County is the midst of a $36 million school construction program and may soon have to seek another large bond issue because of additional construction needs.

“This is going to impact the property taxes of Lincoln County,” he warned.

Cochrane cited the need for a “menu” of revenue resources for local government.

Sen. David Hoyle, D-Dallas, suggested a possible solution may be a local option sales tax.

Both Hoyle and Sen. Jim Forrester of Stanley, who represent portions of Lincoln County, said the legislature made a mistake by not addressing a shortfall many sensed was coming before they left Raleigh.

“We haven’t done what’s right and I’ll take my share of the responsibility,” Hoyle said.

Because estimates were off and revenues down, it was left to Easely to make the decisions about what should be cut.

But Forrester said after the breakfast that he would have preferred the members of the General Assembly make the decisions instead of Easley, who could have called them back into session.

Forrester said the decision to withhold money from local governments “is wrong.”

“We have expressed that to him (Easley). He has told us that if he doesn’t need that money, it will be refunded.

Next year “is going to be even worse than this year,” Forrester said. “I predict a $2 billion shortfall.”

The response to such a huge deficit will be unpopular, Forrester said. Lawmakers will have to raise taxes or cut programs significantly

On a positive note, Rep. Dan Barefoot, D-Lincolnton, pointed out that between 60 and 65 cents of every dollar in the budget is being used for public education.

“We are bringing our SAT scores higher than anybody in U.S.,” he said. North Carolina and Texas, Barefoot said, are leading the nation in public education.

But Barefoot warned that the state’s bill for Medicaid — the program that provides medical care for the indigent — is growing at an alarming rate. If it continues, it will take half of the state’s budget within eight years, he said.

Redistricting proposals face legal challenges in courts and lawmakers were unable to say exactly what their districts would look like when it’s all over

Now divided up among four Senate members, Lincoln may wind up as a two- or three-member district, joined with Catawba or Iredell counties, Forrester said.

“I don’t know what it will be,” he said. “Lincoln has always been butchered up, and I think that’s wrong.”

Barefoot predicted the state would buckle down and survive the budget shortfalls and the long legal disputes over redistricting.

“We have always stood together in the toughest times.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

Terms and Conditions